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"Whatever sentence he receives will never bring Cathy back, nor erase for us the horror of her suffering and death at his hands," Mr Marlow said.

The court heard that Fagan, 33, was bankrupt and desperate for money after being sacked as a web production executive from Research Now, a marketing firm where he worked alongside Miss Marlow.

In January last year, using an old security pass, he raided the offices in Stockwell, south London. But Miss Marlow, a New Zealander who worked for the firm as a finance manager, caught him red handed after she had gone in to catch up on work following a holiday.

When she caught him stealing computers Fagan hit her with a hammer, throttled her with her scarf, then dumped her body in an office shower cubicle.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, said: "She made a fateful decision to go to work on a Saturday. Her diligence cost her her life."

Miss Marlow struggled against her attacker, scratching and ripping out a lump of his hair. But the judge told Fagan: "Against a man of your size and strength she would have stood no chance."

"What you have done has caused untold anguish," he added. "This was a terrible attack and you must take responsibility for your actions. This was a burglary that went wrong."

After the murder, Fagan "callously" continued with the raid and CCTV caught him leaving the property with a rucksack full of laptop computers and the victim's handbag.

Members of Miss Marlow's family, who travelled from New Zealand to be in court, wept as Fagan was jailed for a minimum of 26 years.

Fagan had lived in Washington and Canada before coming to Britain in 2000 and said in court that he was married to a German woman. He was caught after a DNA sample was found underneath Miss Marlow's fingernails.

It matched with one taken from him in November 2005 when he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

Det Chf Insp Damian Allain, who led the investigation, said that Fagan was a "devious and callous" man who had told a tissue of lies to avoid justice.

He said: "Cathy's love of travel led her from New Zealand to London, a city she loved.

"Her diligence and hard-working nature led her to be at her office on that Saturday; bad luck led her to cross paths with her killer.